Courtesy of Roxanne Werner
Roxanne Werner and her wife, Kristina Werner, bought their Houston home in early 2022 when, like many white-collar workers, they were still working remotely and wanted more space. Buying felt relatively affordable — they paid about $390,000 for their three-bedroom house with a pool and snagged a 3.75% mortgage interest rate.
But the hidden costs of homeownership quickly reared their ugly heads. First, there was a gas leak. Then, a $10,000 air conditioning repair. A costly pool leak, new garage doors, and plumbing issues came next. It felt like they’re playing whack-a-mole with never-ending home maintenance. And that’s all on top of their $2,600 monthly mortgage payment.
“The amount we pay monthly for our mortgage is totally reasonable,” said Werner, who’s 38 and works in communications for local government. “But then once we moved in, it just feels like it’s been one thing after another, after another, after another.”
So the couple, who have a combined income of about $185,000, is selling their house and going back to renting.
They’re not alone. Some homeowners are weighing the burdens of owning and deciding they’d prefer the flexibility and lack of liability that renting offers. This has helped push the age of the typical tenant higher, driven also by both Gen Zers and millennials renting for longer and boomers renting as they age.
Courtesy of Deboorah Oliver
Rethinking the American Dream
As interest rates and home prices have surged in recent years, renting has become a better deal than buying in many places — a reversal of the historic norm. Indeed, homebuyers purchasing starter homes in 50 major cities in 2024 spent over $1,000 more on housing costs each month than tenants do.
There are all kinds of phantom costs associated with owning a home beyond the mortgage, insurance, and taxes. Buying and selling fees, home maintenance and repairs, insurance, and taxes can all be more than a homeowner bargained for.
And unlike other major purchases, like a car, homebuyers tend to treat their home as an investment that will appreciate over time. But turning a profit on a home — or just breaking even — is far from assured.
Werner and her wife, who works for the University of Houston, are looking forward to putting more money aside each month for long-term savings, vacations, dinners out, and their 11-year-old son’s college fund. Buying another, lower-maintenance home feels like a bad deal now, Werner said, with interest rates around 7% and home prices elevated.
“It just feels like the whole housing market is kind of a scam,” Werner said. “You buy the house, you sell it, and then you make a bunch of money, but then you also want to be able to afford to buy another house.”
The couple listed their house for $429,000 in early May and are out of the option period with a buyer who has offered just below their asking price. Now, they’re looking for a rental townhouse in a more walkable neighborhood that’s closer to downtown Houston.
Werner estimates that she and her wife, who works at the University of Houston, will end up spending a bit more on their future rent — they think around $2,800 — than they do on their mortgage. But they expect to spend less on their overall housing costs when they factor in repairs and maintenance, she added.
Ultimately, though, Werner wants to abandon the social norms and traditions that make owning a home “synonymous” with the American Dream.
“Do we mean buy a home, or do we mean that you can build any life you want to, and maybe, for some people, that doesn’t mean owning a home?” she said.
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